December 22, 2020 • 30 mins
Ever heard of a Broadway production called "Hamilton"?? How 'bout the lead character, Aaron Burr??? If you're nodding, yes, yes, yes, you'll be excited to hear that Tony Award winner, Leslie Odom, Jr., will be joining us today on my podcast!
Though Broadway is taking a break, Leslie has been doing anything but - he's been a busy busy man! For one, he's released a Christmas album, two, he stars in a movie opening on Christmas Day, AND, this past Sunday, he hosted the CBS special, "A Home For The Holiday's" to help raise awareness of foster care adoption. He's everywhere - including here with us!
Join in and get the full-scoop on our last podcast of 2020, with Leslie Odom, Jr.! ~ Delilah
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Happy days from the Sometimes the most fabulous opportunities come
my way. Today is one of those days, in a
(00:23):
time not so long ago, and yet it seems like
forever ago. We had schools, we had travel, we had
entertainment venues. They were wide open, we had movies, and
we had plays. And I had the privilege to attend
to showing of Hamilton's on Broadway. It was exceptional in
(00:46):
every way possible. Many of the performances just absolutely stunned me.
They were phenomenal, and one of the characters in particular
stood out, Aaron Burr played by Leslie Odom Jr. Whoa
can that man sing? Can he sing? And can he act?
(01:08):
And can he dance? I guess I wasn't the only
one blown away because the performance won him a prestigious
Tony Award. And guess what that man, Leslie Odom Jr.
Is dropping in to join us right now on Loves
Someone Today. Oh My Hearts Be Still. Leslie is gifting
(01:30):
the world with a Christmas album that was released in November,
a movie that opens on Christmas Day, and he hosted
the CBS special A Home for the Holidays to help
raise awareness of kids in Foster care who need to
be adopted. So even though Broadway has been shut down
for months, Leslie has been keeping busy, and we have
(01:52):
a whole lot to talk about. Right after I spent
a little time telling you about another fabulous performer. The
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(02:12):
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the Home Depot. How doers get more done? Even though
(02:33):
Broadway has been shut down now since what March, March
or April, Leslie, you've been keeping busy. We have a
lot to talk about. We got Christmas music to talk about,
we got movies to talk about, and we got to
talk about Hamilton's. I mean, we can't not talk about
Hamilton's because you cannot. So I went and saw you
(02:55):
in Hamilton's. You did, and nobody warned me. I mean
I had heard the rave reviews, I had heard all
the you know, all the good stuff. But I went
and saw you in Hamilton's shortly after I lost a son.
Oh god, Yes, nobody warned me. Lastly, yeah, yeah, they
(03:15):
had to take me out of the theater. The people
I was with how to take me out of the
theater because I had a small mental breakdown. What an
intense I mean, every second of the production is intense.
You know. We had one of my favorite nights in
the theater. Uh, that moment or for for those in
(03:39):
your audience that don't know, there's a moment Hamilton's lost
a child, and there was at that moment in the
second act my favorite night in the theater. Delilah was
not the standing ovations and the screaming and hollering that
people would do, you know, because Len's work, that's what
it brings out in people. People have this visceral response
(04:01):
and connection to his music. Um. But there was one
night where we finished that that song it's called Unimaginable
and for the first time in my life, I've done
a lot of theater. The audience fourteen hundred people didn't
applaud they didn't say anything. They sat there for I
(04:27):
don't know, six seven seconds, a whole audience of people.
It was stunning, it was remarkable. It was it was
like the equivalent of a five standing ovations, because it
is so rare to stun people into silence. But that
audience on that night, the way that moment hit them,
(04:49):
um was probably you know a lot like it. It's you.
I remember when Lynn wrote that song. Uh, not to
get all Hamilton, but yeah, when he wrote that song,
I just couldn't believe it. I thought he had broken
through to another side of himself as a writer. Um,
it's just what he did was he put into song yep,
(05:10):
what it feels like, the unimaginable pain. Yep, he put
it into song, and it just yeah, it was so powerful.
I don't know if you know this, but at the
public theater, it was crazy that this happened to it
(05:32):
the public theater. I don't It's it's public knowledge. So
I really don't think I'm speaking out of turn. I
I you know what, I imagine that they would want
me to share this with you at this time, you know,
right at this moment. But when we were off Broadway.
The public theater is run by this magnanimous, generous soul
(05:54):
by the name of Oscar Used, this brilliant man, and
he was soul sponsible for the early development of this show.
He showed us such support and right away and like
and gave the show his his brain, his genius, and
his contacts. And so we ran off Broadway for six months.
And right before we opened off Broadway, Oscar and his wife,
(06:19):
their son Jack, their only son, committed suicide. And we
were all stunned. And when I tell you Oscar and Lori,
um will they'll tell you themselves. But you know, if
the show became sort of like church for them, you
know it was. It really was a bomb for them.
(06:40):
And they came. Lori came, man, you know, a couple
of times a week, and we the responsibility that we
felt during that time to just give her some comfort
and maybe some joys for a couple of moments out
of the day. Was we We really took it seriously.
So I know the power of the show. You brought
(07:01):
me joy, you brought me comfort, But I was not.
Somebody should warn people and say there is a song,
there is a scene that if you have lost a child.
You need to prepare for because it's almost otherworldly, the
way that it transports you to that place of grief.
(07:24):
I mean I I left for the duration the rest
of the song. I came back and saw the end
of the play. But then, you know what it did.
It puts such a hunger in me to learn about
the characters, like I left there, and I did. I
dove deep. I did hours of research on on the
sun Philip that he lost, and on Alexander Hamilton's and
(07:47):
on the asshole that you played. Mr Mr Burr, What
a what a perfect name. He was a burr. He
was a notorious scoundrel. Yeah, among other things, but yeah,
he was a scoundrel. He was a scoundrel and you
played him. Well, is there a bit of that scoundrel
(08:07):
in you? Oh? Sure? It's in't all of us? A
friend of mine, it is, it's in all of us.
A friend of mine said, she's a lawyer, and she
said she spends it. She gave me this. We were
at a bar. She had come to see the show
early in rehearsed so early in previews on Broadway, and
went to a bar afterwards. And she's a lawyer, and
she said, you know, um, I just love the characterization,
(08:31):
you know, with you and Lynn, Um, I really want
her out to who wrote that that biography of Hamilton's
what you guys have done? She said, because my life
as a lawyer, I spend most of my time defending
people for their worst act on their worst day. You know,
(08:52):
you imagine you imagine that, You imagine that It's like
we've all had of just like those moments. If if
you just looked that snapshot of the worst thing I've
done on the worst day of my life, and you
boiled my whole life down to that moment. Um, I
think any of us could be painted as a scoundrel,
any of us could be painted as a villain. And so, um,
(09:14):
you know, I'm not here to make a case for Bird,
you know it is. I love what what Alexander Hamilton
himself wrote about Burr years before the two were in
the duel. He said, Burr loves nothing but himself. He
is sanguine enough to hope everything, daring enough to try anything,
(09:36):
wicked enough to scruple nothing. And the way you played
the character, yeah, you nailed that. I don't know if
you've ever heard that quote before, but you nailed that.
You were the character that you played was sanguine enough
to hope everything, daring enough to try anything, and wicked
(09:57):
enough to scruple nothing. I'll take it, listen. I think
I had a real love for the guy, for the characterization,
you know, um, And I don't think I was the first.
I think Lynn loved him first. You don't write it.
You don't write a song like Wait for It for
a character or a song like Dear Theodosia for a
(10:20):
character that you don't love. And so I think Lynn
found his way to have compassion for him, and I
found my way to birth through Lynn. Of course, Burr
loves nothing but himself, but Leslie loves a whole lot
of folks and a whole lot of things. So tell me,
tell me. That's a perfect segue here to tell me
about the people that are closest to your heart. Uh um, Well,
(10:44):
I'm talking to outside because like everybody you know, we're
we're taking this like most of us were taking this
quarantine pretty seriously. So we gotta we got a full
house inside. Right now is my wife and she um
in the living room is doing a Zoom personal training
session with her dear friend of ours. But they do.
They've taken their you know, their yoga and their fitness
(11:08):
stuff to zoom. So the living room is is loud
right now with that. My daughter is in the kitchen.
My toddler, my three year old, is in there with
my sister in law, and they are making what are
they making, um, a mess? They're making a mess. They're
making a mess. Yeah, it's a toddler. She's making a mess.
(11:29):
Some kind of vegan treating there. I have a granddaughter
who's two, and my youngest son is four, and they
have to face time each other every morning. Now that's
their little tradition. So my daughter calls me and then
the two kids have to talk. And my poor daughter,
all she does is go around all day long cleaning
(11:50):
up the toddler's tornado. That's all she does. If you
have any room on that zoom to add to add
a little girl, let me know, because that's where we're
all trying to figure out, you know, how to keep
these little people connected, occupied and connected, occupied and growing still.
You know, it's like we we've all become part time
(12:11):
preschool teachers. It's you know, oh my gosh, if I
have to listen to one more Veggie Tails song. Has
your daughter discovered veggie tails? Yet? We're not at Veggie
Taels house? Yet we are. We are Daniel Tiger, We
are Blues Clues, Door the Explorer. Those are the ones
and word party. Look up veggie Tales. VeggieTales is It's
(12:32):
it's singing and performing vegetables who have no arms and
no legs. Um, but they have trumpets and trombones and
and silly songs with larry and no arms and legs. Yeah,
oh yeah, it's quite ingenious. And and I I I
(12:52):
was introduced to VeggieTales because my oldest child is probably
older than you, and my youngest child is four. So
I've been doing this, you know, mama bear thing for
over four decades now. And my my older kids loved
veggie Tales, and so I loved Veggie Tails, and then
Veggie Tails reached out to me, and I got to
(13:14):
be a character in one of their movies. I have
like I know, huh, I should have liked won an
award for it, like you won your award for Hamilton's. Um.
I had like four lines, but I did them well.
I played a little sour grape anyway, introduce your daughter
to veggie tails. Uh, we'll do it. You will walk
(13:34):
around the house singing, oh where is my hairbrush? Oh?
Where is my hairbrush? Oh? Where where? Or where? Where? Where? Where?
A where is my hair brush? You don't need a
hair brush, you don't have any hair When when I
make my Veggie Tails cover album, I will dedicate it
to you because you introduced me to veggie tail. Oh, Leslie,
(13:56):
let me tell you. But speaking of music, better than
AARs my hair brust, tell me about your Christmas album?
Oh my goodness. Well, I you know, of all the
things that I've done, I've done, I've been sort of busy,
you know, since leaving Hamilton's. Have done a lot of stuff,
sort of busy, movies, albums, babies. It's sort of busy.
(14:19):
But the thing that I hear about most often, right
after Hamilton's, of course, is this Christmas album that I made.
I made a Christmas album a couple of years ago,
and I hear about it, certainly at the holidays all
the time. But it's it's it's got me jobs. My
Christmas album was was one of the things that Regina.
Regina said, I heard that Christmas album and I was
like that, Sam Cook. So so it being out in
(14:42):
the space has done really wonderful things for for us
and people have embraced it. So um COVID nineteen, like
everybody else, caught us in the middle of something. You know,
I was. I was on tour for I put out
an original album, all original music called MR at the
end of last year, and everybody told me, you can't
just put out an album and expect people to find
(15:02):
their way to it. You have to tour an album.
You have to go around the country and kiss babies,
shake hands. No no, no, no, no, Leslie, Leslie, Leslie.
All you have to do is called a lila oh baby, Well,
thank you for halfies and one night, bam bam, your
work is done. Yeah, we had to we had to pivot,
(15:25):
you know that the tour got canceled, and I you know,
at first, I wasn't you know, I wasn't even concerned
about that. I wanted to be home with my with
my ladies and hold them close. And you know, we
didn't know how close this virus was gonna get to home,
how seriously was going to be So so anyway was home,
you know, just on lockdown. For a few months and
then up to three months into the thing, you're like, Okay,
(15:45):
what can I do? What can I make? And just
fast forwarding a little bit, trying to imagine this Christmas,
this Christmas, what people might be in need of, what
people how we could be of service. And we made
this this second Christmas album in many ways, we just
hope it feels and sounds like a gift. You know
(16:06):
that that's our intention. So what's your favorite song that
you did on this one? Well, I wrote two original
songs on this one. I wouldn't have even dared to
attempt that on the first one that it opens within
a box as the kids call it. It's called snow Um,
you know, for you to dance around the house while
you're decorating the tree and putting your lights up. And
(16:27):
then it closes with an original song called Heaven and Earth.
That really kind of And I was in the delivery
room for the birth of my daughter, and something I
was thinking about in the delivery room. You know what,
when you know, as you begin the craft of the
father watching um, if you're lucky enough with you, you know,
(16:47):
to to be in the deliver room from bern of
a child where every man is Joseph in the delivery room.
You know, every man has that wonder and that awe
and terror and lation, you know, all that time as
we watched women do the most miraculous thing that most
of us will ever witness on this planet. Um, so
(17:08):
Heaven and Earth is about just try to put you
back in that delivery room and really back in that barn,
you know. So think about this. When you were in
the delivery room with you know, seeing your baby girl
be born, there were doctors, nurses, midwives, dou Lah's technicians,
oxygen tanks, all that at your disposal should problems arise.
(17:34):
I often think about Joseph. It was just him, Mary,
a few cows, some sheep. Yeah, and back then men
weren't even allowed near the women when they were having
anything to do with you know, the monthly cycle or
anything like that. And here he's thrust into the role
(17:57):
of delivering the almighty. Yeah, I mean, could you imagine
he's a terrible god? What if I drop him? Oh? No,
oh no, somebody? Is there anybody else out there that
could come and give me a hand? That is hello, people,
(18:21):
I mean, without the without the the support staff that
I had you know, I think that there are similar
things that I felt. You know also, you know much
out not being the almighty, but but just yet a
little life that that I believe comes from God, a
(18:41):
little soul, little spirit. TI I'm charged with um And
you're like, am I ready? Am I enough? Do I
know enough? What if I dropped her? What if you
know all those things? That is what you're thinking. And
I mean my wife, man, Oh my god, the respect
that I had had for her after seeing or do
something like that. It's just yeah, there's no equivalent from men.
(19:05):
There's there is no equivalent in this life that we
go through that you know, which you guys have to
face your death. You have to face your death to
bring life into the world. It's it's astonishing, an astonishing paradox,
and most of it, if most of us have given
the chance, would do it again and again. I mean no,
(19:26):
I was blessed to give birth to three and further
blessed to adopt twelve and marry a man that had five,
And if I could, I would still be birth and babies,
because it's the greatest blessing in in my world, far
above anything. Nothing even comes close to being the joy
(19:49):
giver to my heart that my kids are nothing after
that Hamilton's you know, my wife and I were not
planning on having children, uh anytime soon, you know. But
but after that, after that Hamilton thing and climbing that
mountain and you know, wrapping my arms around a childhood
(20:10):
dream and a Tony award and the Grammy award and stuff,
you know, and and just just really that experience being
so satisfying and satiating. It was like, what what mountain
do we want to climb next? I mean, it was
really the only the only next thing we could do
because we knew we didn't want to just like continue
after career aspirations. It's like, look, that was and my
(20:34):
wife's got to experience it right alongside me, so you know,
in many ways it was you know, it was my
victory was as much her victory, you know. So we
decided to have a kid next. And you're absolutely right,
it's everything else pales in comparison. It's all wonderful. It
is all wonderful, the accolades and the and the career stuff,
(20:54):
but um, being a husband, being a dad is the
most important job and my face her job on the planet,
all right, We're going to have to figure out how
to zoom the littles because I gotta I gotta meet
this little person in yours. So tell me about One
Night in Miami opening Christmas Day. Yeah, quite a story,
you guys decided to tell. Yeah, One Night in Miami,
(21:19):
directed by Oscar winner, Emmy winner Regina King's having quite
renaissance herself. Um, but she found this play, you know,
after the Oscar. Hollywood came to her and they said,
you know what, that's what happens after you win Oscar.
So what do you want to do next? What movie
can we find for you? She said, I really want
to direct something and I said what do you want
(21:40):
to direct? And she said, well, I think I really
want to direct a black love story and I love that.
That's the start of this. This movie, which she ended
up finding, was a story about friendship and brotherhood. Um
so that was her love story. But it's based on
a true night. Cash is Clay is going to fight
than the heavyweight champion uh Sunny listing for the belt.
(22:05):
Nobody expects Cashes to win this fight, so there's no
victory party planned in Miami for Cashes. Nobody expected Cashes
to win except for except for cashes, right, I love that.
I would much rather the whole world be against me
when I go into a ring, when I go into battle,
I don't want anybody to plan a victory party because
(22:28):
I want to kick butt and then say told you so,
that's what he does, that's what he did, that's what
he did. And he did, and he spent the evening
that night his victory party, was hanging out in a
hotel room with three of his closest friends who just
happened to be Jim Brown, Malcolm X, and Sam Cook.
(22:51):
And we know the night happened, that the men all
spoke about the night. Um, but we know we also
have confirmation of the night because the FBI was the
CIA was following Malcolm and keeping copious notes on everything
you did, and so uh their notes that are public
record now about about that evening, and nobody knows what
(23:12):
went on in the room where it happened, as it were,
Nobody knows what they talked about that night. But um,
it became uh, this legendary night only in hindsight because
within a year, Delilah, both Malcolm and Sam would be
gone so suddenly and so violently so you imagine you
(23:33):
have a night like that. You know, when I tell people,
it's like, you know, you imagine you have a you know,
you hang out the three of your pals and you know,
you guys have a night on the town, you know,
and then God forbid, you know, you if you've lost
them with you know everything, every interaction you you pour over,
those interactions, you pour over the last time you talk
to them, the last meaningful conversation you had in hindsight,
(23:56):
because you're like, you know, that's all you had left.
And so that's what this film supposes, what they might
have talked about that night, all night long. And it's
a very special movie getting a lot of attention, and
I'm very very proud of it. And you're Sam Cook.
I'm Sam Cook in this film. Uh cut me some slack,
because I mean it's Sam Cooke, the greatest, one of
(24:19):
the greatest voices we were ever gifted. And what a
soul you know, and what and what an icono class
I mean, he was just He's the blueprint. So um yeah,
I play Sam Cook. I do. I attempt to sing
the Sam Cook music in the film, and the hits
(24:40):
are all in there, so it comes and select theaters
of course, if you're willing to go to a movie
theater or drive in theater. I said, I started the
drive in the top of this week and it was
I've never been to a drive in. It was really
fun time we had. And it comes to Amazon Prime
January fifteen, the top of the next year, Martin Luther
King Junior Weekend. It come to your living room, so
(25:01):
see it on Christmas, or wait a couple of weeks
and see it in your living room. And it's called
One Night in Miami. Now before you go, one more
thing we have to talk about. Because of all the
projects you're involved with right now, this is the one
that's closest to my heart because six of my kids
came to me um. I adopted them out of the
(25:22):
foster care system. And you are hosting something CBS is
a home for the holidays. Yeah, and I hope the
entire world pays attention. Yeah, where um Hamilton's is this
wonderful thing because it set a big old table for us.
You know a lot of people love this show and
(25:43):
there and that the love for the material gets transferred
onto those of us that were lucky enough to be
in the original cast, and so we're able to bring
attention to causes and charities, charity work and stuff, you know,
because these all these people, they need to continue to
do this necessary work. Even in the middle of, you know,
(26:06):
of a shutdown. Not only are there still kids in
foster care, but the number of children, uh that now
needs services because the shutdown has caused such a jump
in addictions, in poverty, in suicide rates, and all the
things that lead kids to be in the system in
the first place. It's kind of exponentially now exponentially. So
(26:30):
I love this, this this thing that you're you're doing
the show to bring awareness two kids in foster care.
My pleasure. And if you ever, you know, if you
ever wanna, you know, a private, little living room concert,
you let me know. Because it's you. It sounds like
you've got your own thing going over there. You are,
you know, changing the world over there, all by yourself.
(26:52):
So oh trust me, it's not all by myself. I
have many hands that have to help me. But with
everything shut down in our country and all the stress
going on, it seems like you are moving forward and
moving forward with joy and with passion and with love.
And I love that we know how contagious this virus is.
(27:16):
We know how easy it is to spread um, a
literal virus. I think we're seeing how easy it is
to spread hatred and derision around the country. That's also easy.
And I think you know, if you put your mind
to it, you can spread joy to you can spread love,
you can spread kindness. And I want to That's what
I want to be about. In addition to wearing my
(27:39):
mask and keeping the people that I hold most dear
safe as much as I can, I'm trying to spread
some positivity out here. Well. I believe that that the
love and joy and happiness and faith will always always
always win, will always win because because light cast out darkness.
When you open a door less lee at night and
(28:01):
it's pitch black outside, the night doesn't sneak into your house.
The light and the warmth of your house goes out
into the night. And that's what you're doing. You're that light.
You're a light on a hill. You're sharing that love
and that joy in a world that's kind of dark
right now and kind of scary. Thank you, Delilah, you too,
(28:23):
by the way, Well, Merry Christmas, my friend, God bless you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the time my pleasure.
Thanks so much. Leslie Odom Jr. Is so handsome, so talented,
what a voice. I admire him so very much for
putting his heart and soul into the very meaningful roles.
All the roles that he takes on, he puts his
(28:43):
heart and soul into not just for the entertainment element,
but because he has the ability to make you feel
and make you think and touches you in deep emotional ways.
Truly a great performer and such a wonderful man. His
work is inspiring and provides us with an important lesson.
When what we've become accustomed to as normal shifted in
(29:08):
seismic waves, tilting our view of reality on its axis,
we have to adapt. So many of my guests in
the last several months have provided the same inspiration. John
bon Jovi with his message of do what you can
for King and Country and their drummer boy drive in
concerts and their deep and abiding faith life. This year
(29:31):
has changed for all of us. It has changed for
all of us, but I believe it is a wonderful
time to be alive. There are so many beautiful things
in the world to enjoy, and celebrate so many miracles
this Christmas season. There is no better time to remember
(29:52):
and contemplate the fact that for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. What can
you give? What can you give the world? As we
wrap up twenty and head into a new year, please
remember that you are important, You are needed, You are
(30:13):
needed your life as a gift. If you're not living
up to your potential. Whatever you need to do, do it,
do it today, do it tonight, and then be in
service to others and love someone. Merry Christmas, my friends.
I wish you a beautiful holiday and a very blessed
new year. Deve
Happy days from the Sometimes the most fabulous opportunities come
my way. Today is one of those days, in a
(00:23):
time not so long ago, and yet it seems like
forever ago. We had schools, we had travel, we had
entertainment venues. They were wide open, we had movies, and
we had plays. And I had the privilege to attend
to showing of Hamilton's on Broadway. It was exceptional in
(00:46):
every way possible. Many of the performances just absolutely stunned me.
They were phenomenal, and one of the characters in particular
stood out, Aaron Burr played by Leslie Odom Jr. Whoa
can that man sing? Can he sing? And can he act?
(01:08):
And can he dance? I guess I wasn't the only
one blown away because the performance won him a prestigious
Tony Award. And guess what that man, Leslie Odom Jr.
Is dropping in to join us right now on Loves
Someone Today. Oh My Hearts Be Still. Leslie is gifting
(01:30):
the world with a Christmas album that was released in November,
a movie that opens on Christmas Day, and he hosted
the CBS special A Home for the Holidays to help
raise awareness of kids in Foster care who need to
be adopted. So even though Broadway has been shut down
for months, Leslie has been keeping busy, and we have
(01:52):
a whole lot to talk about. Right after I spent
a little time telling you about another fabulous performer. The
folks making the podcast possible, the home depots making holiday
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knowing that the products you buy as gifts can be
delivered in just a day or two. Use the home
(02:12):
Depot app, which has been updated and made so easy
to navigate and find just the right gift. There's ten
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purchased and shipped right from your phone this year, make
the most of your holidays with a little help from
the Home Depot. How doers get more done? Even though
(02:33):
Broadway has been shut down now since what March, March
or April, Leslie, you've been keeping busy. We have a
lot to talk about. We got Christmas music to talk about,
we got movies to talk about, and we got to
talk about Hamilton's. I mean, we can't not talk about
Hamilton's because you cannot. So I went and saw you
(02:55):
in Hamilton's. You did, and nobody warned me. I mean
I had heard the rave reviews, I had heard all
the you know, all the good stuff. But I went
and saw you in Hamilton's shortly after I lost a son.
Oh god, Yes, nobody warned me. Lastly, yeah, yeah, they
(03:15):
had to take me out of the theater. The people
I was with how to take me out of the
theater because I had a small mental breakdown. What an
intense I mean, every second of the production is intense.
You know. We had one of my favorite nights in
the theater. Uh, that moment or for for those in
(03:39):
your audience that don't know, there's a moment Hamilton's lost
a child, and there was at that moment in the
second act my favorite night in the theater. Delilah was
not the standing ovations and the screaming and hollering that
people would do, you know, because Len's work, that's what
it brings out in people. People have this visceral response
(04:01):
and connection to his music. Um. But there was one
night where we finished that that song it's called Unimaginable
and for the first time in my life, I've done
a lot of theater. The audience fourteen hundred people didn't
applaud they didn't say anything. They sat there for I
(04:27):
don't know, six seven seconds, a whole audience of people.
It was stunning, it was remarkable. It was it was
like the equivalent of a five standing ovations, because it
is so rare to stun people into silence. But that
audience on that night, the way that moment hit them,
(04:49):
um was probably you know a lot like it. It's you.
I remember when Lynn wrote that song. Uh, not to
get all Hamilton, but yeah, when he wrote that song,
I just couldn't believe it. I thought he had broken
through to another side of himself as a writer. Um,
it's just what he did was he put into song yep,
(05:10):
what it feels like, the unimaginable pain. Yep, he put
it into song, and it just yeah, it was so powerful.
I don't know if you know this, but at the
public theater, it was crazy that this happened to it
(05:32):
the public theater. I don't It's it's public knowledge. So
I really don't think I'm speaking out of turn. I
I you know what, I imagine that they would want
me to share this with you at this time, you know,
right at this moment. But when we were off Broadway.
The public theater is run by this magnanimous, generous soul
(05:54):
by the name of Oscar Used, this brilliant man, and
he was soul sponsible for the early development of this show.
He showed us such support and right away and like
and gave the show his his brain, his genius, and
his contacts. And so we ran off Broadway for six months.
And right before we opened off Broadway, Oscar and his wife,
(06:19):
their son Jack, their only son, committed suicide. And we
were all stunned. And when I tell you Oscar and Lori,
um will they'll tell you themselves. But you know, if
the show became sort of like church for them, you
know it was. It really was a bomb for them.
(06:40):
And they came. Lori came, man, you know, a couple
of times a week, and we the responsibility that we
felt during that time to just give her some comfort
and maybe some joys for a couple of moments out
of the day. Was we We really took it seriously.
So I know the power of the show. You brought
(07:01):
me joy, you brought me comfort, But I was not.
Somebody should warn people and say there is a song,
there is a scene that if you have lost a child.
You need to prepare for because it's almost otherworldly, the
way that it transports you to that place of grief.
(07:24):
I mean I I left for the duration the rest
of the song. I came back and saw the end
of the play. But then, you know what it did.
It puts such a hunger in me to learn about
the characters, like I left there, and I did. I
dove deep. I did hours of research on on the
sun Philip that he lost, and on Alexander Hamilton's and
(07:47):
on the asshole that you played. Mr Mr Burr, What
a what a perfect name. He was a burr. He
was a notorious scoundrel. Yeah, among other things, but yeah,
he was a scoundrel. He was a scoundrel and you
played him. Well, is there a bit of that scoundrel
(08:07):
in you? Oh? Sure? It's in't all of us? A
friend of mine, it is, it's in all of us.
A friend of mine said, she's a lawyer, and she
said she spends it. She gave me this. We were
at a bar. She had come to see the show
early in rehearsed so early in previews on Broadway, and
went to a bar afterwards. And she's a lawyer, and
she said, you know, um, I just love the characterization,
(08:31):
you know, with you and Lynn, Um, I really want
her out to who wrote that that biography of Hamilton's
what you guys have done? She said, because my life
as a lawyer, I spend most of my time defending
people for their worst act on their worst day. You know,
(08:52):
you imagine you imagine that, You imagine that It's like
we've all had of just like those moments. If if
you just looked that snapshot of the worst thing I've
done on the worst day of my life, and you
boiled my whole life down to that moment. Um, I
think any of us could be painted as a scoundrel,
any of us could be painted as a villain. And so, um,
(09:14):
you know, I'm not here to make a case for Bird,
you know it is. I love what what Alexander Hamilton
himself wrote about Burr years before the two were in
the duel. He said, Burr loves nothing but himself. He
is sanguine enough to hope everything, daring enough to try anything,
(09:36):
wicked enough to scruple nothing. And the way you played
the character, yeah, you nailed that. I don't know if
you've ever heard that quote before, but you nailed that.
You were the character that you played was sanguine enough
to hope everything, daring enough to try anything, and wicked
(09:57):
enough to scruple nothing. I'll take it, listen. I think
I had a real love for the guy, for the characterization,
you know, um, And I don't think I was the first.
I think Lynn loved him first. You don't write it.
You don't write a song like Wait for It for
a character or a song like Dear Theodosia for a
(10:20):
character that you don't love. And so I think Lynn
found his way to have compassion for him, and I
found my way to birth through Lynn. Of course, Burr
loves nothing but himself, but Leslie loves a whole lot
of folks and a whole lot of things. So tell me,
tell me. That's a perfect segue here to tell me
about the people that are closest to your heart. Uh um, Well,
(10:44):
I'm talking to outside because like everybody you know, we're
we're taking this like most of us were taking this
quarantine pretty seriously. So we gotta we got a full
house inside. Right now is my wife and she um
in the living room is doing a Zoom personal training
session with her dear friend of ours. But they do.
They've taken their you know, their yoga and their fitness
(11:08):
stuff to zoom. So the living room is is loud
right now with that. My daughter is in the kitchen.
My toddler, my three year old, is in there with
my sister in law, and they are making what are
they making, um, a mess? They're making a mess. They're
making a mess. Yeah, it's a toddler. She's making a mess.
(11:29):
Some kind of vegan treating there. I have a granddaughter
who's two, and my youngest son is four, and they
have to face time each other every morning. Now that's
their little tradition. So my daughter calls me and then
the two kids have to talk. And my poor daughter,
all she does is go around all day long cleaning
(11:50):
up the toddler's tornado. That's all she does. If you
have any room on that zoom to add to add
a little girl, let me know, because that's where we're
all trying to figure out, you know, how to keep
these little people connected, occupied and connected, occupied and growing still.
You know, it's like we we've all become part time
(12:11):
preschool teachers. It's you know, oh my gosh, if I
have to listen to one more Veggie Tails song. Has
your daughter discovered veggie tails? Yet? We're not at Veggie
Taels house? Yet we are. We are Daniel Tiger, We
are Blues Clues, Door the Explorer. Those are the ones
and word party. Look up veggie Tales. VeggieTales is It's
(12:32):
it's singing and performing vegetables who have no arms and
no legs. Um, but they have trumpets and trombones and
and silly songs with larry and no arms and legs. Yeah,
oh yeah, it's quite ingenious. And and I I I
(12:52):
was introduced to VeggieTales because my oldest child is probably
older than you, and my youngest child is four. So
I've been doing this, you know, mama bear thing for
over four decades now. And my my older kids loved
veggie Tales, and so I loved Veggie Tails, and then
Veggie Tails reached out to me, and I got to
(13:14):
be a character in one of their movies. I have
like I know, huh, I should have liked won an
award for it, like you won your award for Hamilton's. Um.
I had like four lines, but I did them well.
I played a little sour grape anyway, introduce your daughter
to veggie tails. Uh, we'll do it. You will walk
(13:34):
around the house singing, oh where is my hairbrush? Oh?
Where is my hairbrush? Oh? Where where? Or where? Where? Where? Where?
A where is my hair brush? You don't need a
hair brush, you don't have any hair When when I
make my Veggie Tails cover album, I will dedicate it
to you because you introduced me to veggie tail. Oh, Leslie,
(13:56):
let me tell you. But speaking of music, better than
AARs my hair brust, tell me about your Christmas album?
Oh my goodness. Well, I you know, of all the
things that I've done, I've done, I've been sort of busy,
you know, since leaving Hamilton's. Have done a lot of stuff,
sort of busy, movies, albums, babies. It's sort of busy.
(14:19):
But the thing that I hear about most often, right
after Hamilton's, of course, is this Christmas album that I made.
I made a Christmas album a couple of years ago,
and I hear about it, certainly at the holidays all
the time. But it's it's it's got me jobs. My
Christmas album was was one of the things that Regina.
Regina said, I heard that Christmas album and I was
like that, Sam Cook. So so it being out in
(14:42):
the space has done really wonderful things for for us
and people have embraced it. So um COVID nineteen, like
everybody else, caught us in the middle of something. You know,
I was. I was on tour for I put out
an original album, all original music called MR at the
end of last year, and everybody told me, you can't
just put out an album and expect people to find
(15:02):
their way to it. You have to tour an album.
You have to go around the country and kiss babies,
shake hands. No no, no, no, no, Leslie, Leslie, Leslie.
All you have to do is called a lila oh baby, Well,
thank you for halfies and one night, bam bam, your
work is done. Yeah, we had to we had to pivot,
(15:25):
you know that the tour got canceled, and I you know,
at first, I wasn't you know, I wasn't even concerned
about that. I wanted to be home with my with
my ladies and hold them close. And you know, we
didn't know how close this virus was gonna get to home,
how seriously was going to be So so anyway was home,
you know, just on lockdown. For a few months and
then up to three months into the thing, you're like, Okay,
(15:45):
what can I do? What can I make? And just
fast forwarding a little bit, trying to imagine this Christmas,
this Christmas, what people might be in need of, what
people how we could be of service. And we made
this this second Christmas album in many ways, we just
hope it feels and sounds like a gift. You know
(16:06):
that that's our intention. So what's your favorite song that
you did on this one? Well, I wrote two original
songs on this one. I wouldn't have even dared to
attempt that on the first one that it opens within
a box as the kids call it. It's called snow Um,
you know, for you to dance around the house while
you're decorating the tree and putting your lights up. And
(16:27):
then it closes with an original song called Heaven and Earth.
That really kind of And I was in the delivery
room for the birth of my daughter, and something I
was thinking about in the delivery room. You know what,
when you know, as you begin the craft of the
father watching um, if you're lucky enough with you, you know,
(16:47):
to to be in the deliver room from bern of
a child where every man is Joseph in the delivery room.
You know, every man has that wonder and that awe
and terror and lation, you know, all that time as
we watched women do the most miraculous thing that most
of us will ever witness on this planet. Um, so
(17:08):
Heaven and Earth is about just try to put you
back in that delivery room and really back in that barn,
you know. So think about this. When you were in
the delivery room with you know, seeing your baby girl
be born, there were doctors, nurses, midwives, dou Lah's technicians,
oxygen tanks, all that at your disposal should problems arise.
(17:34):
I often think about Joseph. It was just him, Mary,
a few cows, some sheep. Yeah, and back then men
weren't even allowed near the women when they were having
anything to do with you know, the monthly cycle or
anything like that. And here he's thrust into the role
(17:57):
of delivering the almighty. Yeah, I mean, could you imagine
he's a terrible god? What if I drop him? Oh? No,
oh no, somebody? Is there anybody else out there that
could come and give me a hand? That is hello, people,
(18:21):
I mean, without the without the the support staff that
I had you know, I think that there are similar
things that I felt. You know also, you know much
out not being the almighty, but but just yet a
little life that that I believe comes from God, a
(18:41):
little soul, little spirit. TI I'm charged with um And
you're like, am I ready? Am I enough? Do I
know enough? What if I dropped her? What if you
know all those things? That is what you're thinking. And
I mean my wife, man, Oh my god, the respect
that I had had for her after seeing or do
something like that. It's just yeah, there's no equivalent from men.
(19:05):
There's there is no equivalent in this life that we
go through that you know, which you guys have to
face your death. You have to face your death to
bring life into the world. It's it's astonishing, an astonishing paradox,
and most of it, if most of us have given
the chance, would do it again and again. I mean no,
(19:26):
I was blessed to give birth to three and further
blessed to adopt twelve and marry a man that had five,
And if I could, I would still be birth and babies,
because it's the greatest blessing in in my world, far
above anything. Nothing even comes close to being the joy
(19:49):
giver to my heart that my kids are nothing after
that Hamilton's you know, my wife and I were not
planning on having children, uh anytime soon, you know. But
but after that, after that Hamilton thing and climbing that
mountain and you know, wrapping my arms around a childhood
(20:10):
dream and a Tony award and the Grammy award and stuff,
you know, and and just just really that experience being
so satisfying and satiating. It was like, what what mountain
do we want to climb next? I mean, it was
really the only the only next thing we could do
because we knew we didn't want to just like continue
after career aspirations. It's like, look, that was and my
(20:34):
wife's got to experience it right alongside me, so you know,
in many ways it was you know, it was my
victory was as much her victory, you know. So we
decided to have a kid next. And you're absolutely right,
it's everything else pales in comparison. It's all wonderful. It
is all wonderful, the accolades and the and the career stuff,
(20:54):
but um, being a husband, being a dad is the
most important job and my face her job on the planet,
all right, We're going to have to figure out how
to zoom the littles because I gotta I gotta meet
this little person in yours. So tell me about One
Night in Miami opening Christmas Day. Yeah, quite a story,
you guys decided to tell. Yeah, One Night in Miami,
(21:19):
directed by Oscar winner, Emmy winner Regina King's having quite
renaissance herself. Um, but she found this play, you know,
after the Oscar. Hollywood came to her and they said,
you know what, that's what happens after you win Oscar.
So what do you want to do next? What movie
can we find for you? She said, I really want
to direct something and I said what do you want
(21:40):
to direct? And she said, well, I think I really
want to direct a black love story and I love that.
That's the start of this. This movie, which she ended
up finding, was a story about friendship and brotherhood. Um
so that was her love story. But it's based on
a true night. Cash is Clay is going to fight
than the heavyweight champion uh Sunny listing for the belt.
(22:05):
Nobody expects Cashes to win this fight, so there's no
victory party planned in Miami for Cashes. Nobody expected Cashes
to win except for except for cashes, right, I love that.
I would much rather the whole world be against me
when I go into a ring, when I go into battle,
I don't want anybody to plan a victory party because
(22:28):
I want to kick butt and then say told you so,
that's what he does, that's what he did, that's what
he did. And he did, and he spent the evening
that night his victory party, was hanging out in a
hotel room with three of his closest friends who just
happened to be Jim Brown, Malcolm X, and Sam Cook.
(22:51):
And we know the night happened, that the men all
spoke about the night. Um, but we know we also
have confirmation of the night because the FBI was the
CIA was following Malcolm and keeping copious notes on everything
you did, and so uh their notes that are public
record now about about that evening, and nobody knows what
(23:12):
went on in the room where it happened, as it were,
Nobody knows what they talked about that night. But um,
it became uh, this legendary night only in hindsight because
within a year, Delilah, both Malcolm and Sam would be
gone so suddenly and so violently so you imagine you
(23:33):
have a night like that. You know, when I tell people,
it's like, you know, you imagine you have a you know,
you hang out the three of your pals and you know,
you guys have a night on the town, you know,
and then God forbid, you know, you if you've lost
them with you know everything, every interaction you you pour over,
those interactions, you pour over the last time you talk
to them, the last meaningful conversation you had in hindsight,
(23:56):
because you're like, you know, that's all you had left.
And so that's what this film supposes, what they might
have talked about that night, all night long. And it's
a very special movie getting a lot of attention, and
I'm very very proud of it. And you're Sam Cook.
I'm Sam Cook in this film. Uh cut me some slack,
because I mean it's Sam Cooke, the greatest, one of
(24:19):
the greatest voices we were ever gifted. And what a
soul you know, and what and what an icono class
I mean, he was just He's the blueprint. So um yeah,
I play Sam Cook. I do. I attempt to sing
the Sam Cook music in the film, and the hits
(24:40):
are all in there, so it comes and select theaters
of course, if you're willing to go to a movie
theater or drive in theater. I said, I started the
drive in the top of this week and it was
I've never been to a drive in. It was really
fun time we had. And it comes to Amazon Prime
January fifteen, the top of the next year, Martin Luther
King Junior Weekend. It come to your living room, so
(25:01):
see it on Christmas, or wait a couple of weeks
and see it in your living room. And it's called
One Night in Miami. Now before you go, one more
thing we have to talk about. Because of all the
projects you're involved with right now, this is the one
that's closest to my heart because six of my kids
came to me um. I adopted them out of the
(25:22):
foster care system. And you are hosting something CBS is
a home for the holidays. Yeah, and I hope the
entire world pays attention. Yeah, where um Hamilton's is this
wonderful thing because it set a big old table for us.
You know a lot of people love this show and
(25:43):
there and that the love for the material gets transferred
onto those of us that were lucky enough to be
in the original cast, and so we're able to bring
attention to causes and charities, charity work and stuff, you know,
because these all these people, they need to continue to
do this necessary work. Even in the middle of, you know,
(26:06):
of a shutdown. Not only are there still kids in
foster care, but the number of children, uh that now
needs services because the shutdown has caused such a jump
in addictions, in poverty, in suicide rates, and all the
things that lead kids to be in the system in
the first place. It's kind of exponentially now exponentially. So
(26:30):
I love this, this this thing that you're you're doing
the show to bring awareness two kids in foster care.
My pleasure. And if you ever, you know, if you
ever wanna, you know, a private, little living room concert,
you let me know. Because it's you. It sounds like
you've got your own thing going over there. You are,
you know, changing the world over there, all by yourself.
(26:52):
So oh trust me, it's not all by myself. I
have many hands that have to help me. But with
everything shut down in our country and all the stress
going on, it seems like you are moving forward and
moving forward with joy and with passion and with love.
And I love that we know how contagious this virus is.
(27:16):
We know how easy it is to spread um, a
literal virus. I think we're seeing how easy it is
to spread hatred and derision around the country. That's also easy.
And I think you know, if you put your mind
to it, you can spread joy to you can spread love,
you can spread kindness. And I want to That's what
I want to be about. In addition to wearing my
(27:39):
mask and keeping the people that I hold most dear
safe as much as I can, I'm trying to spread
some positivity out here. Well. I believe that that the
love and joy and happiness and faith will always always
always win, will always win because because light cast out darkness.
When you open a door less lee at night and
(28:01):
it's pitch black outside, the night doesn't sneak into your house.
The light and the warmth of your house goes out
into the night. And that's what you're doing. You're that light.
You're a light on a hill. You're sharing that love
and that joy in a world that's kind of dark
right now and kind of scary. Thank you, Delilah, you too,
(28:23):
by the way, Well, Merry Christmas, my friend, God bless you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the time my pleasure.
Thanks so much. Leslie Odom Jr. Is so handsome, so talented,
what a voice. I admire him so very much for
putting his heart and soul into the very meaningful roles.
All the roles that he takes on, he puts his
(28:43):
heart and soul into not just for the entertainment element,
but because he has the ability to make you feel
and make you think and touches you in deep emotional ways.
Truly a great performer and such a wonderful man. His
work is inspiring and provides us with an important lesson.
When what we've become accustomed to as normal shifted in
(29:08):
seismic waves, tilting our view of reality on its axis,
we have to adapt. So many of my guests in
the last several months have provided the same inspiration. John
bon Jovi with his message of do what you can
for King and Country and their drummer boy drive in
concerts and their deep and abiding faith life. This year
(29:31):
has changed for all of us. It has changed for
all of us, but I believe it is a wonderful
time to be alive. There are so many beautiful things
in the world to enjoy, and celebrate so many miracles
this Christmas season. There is no better time to remember
(29:52):
and contemplate the fact that for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. What can
you give? What can you give the world? As we
wrap up twenty and head into a new year, please
remember that you are important, You are needed, You are
(30:13):
needed your life as a gift. If you're not living
up to your potential. Whatever you need to do, do it,
do it today, do it tonight, and then be in
service to others and love someone. Merry Christmas, my friends.
I wish you a beautiful holiday and a very blessed
new year. Deve
Host
Delilah
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